Leaving well enough alone

Last night's sunset.

After a little internal deliberation, I have left the melancholy chapter mostly untouched. A few minor edits have occurred, but despite its unplanned emergence, today I merely added onto the story, nine chapters now accumulated.

The word count is rolling along nicely, this book not causing me overt issues, other than Chapter 8, ahem. Sometimes a novel has a Chapter 8 that sneaks up, throwing the expected plot slightly askew. Yet much has emerged since I last wrote, which was only two days ago, but sometimes a little break is necessary, or maybe a detour adds to the urgency. Whatever it is, or was, all is fine for now. And that in itself is plenty of OKAY.

I like to think of writing as a safe outlet for my active imagination. It's better to write the melodrama than live it, which at times is easier to think than do. It's certainly more preferable, but heartache increases our level of empathy in the best scenarios, leaving us better able to live compassionately. Or that's how I try to eke out my days.

I have a very strong connection to my characters, especially within a series. Even those that only emerge for one novel seem to cling to my shoes, as though I came from a clan of fifteen kids with heaps of extended family on both sides. I can't honestly say why I write what I do, other than within my head ideas scream to be liberated. Who wants to go around with all that noise clamoring in one's brain?

That's what I know on this rainy Sunday morning. Half an inch sits in the gauge, although yesterday was sunny and pleasant as though future precipitation was the last thing on the weather's mind. I trimmed a blackberry bush, mended some socks, finished a Cornflower quilt block, watched the Diamondbacks lose to the Phillies. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset last night near Humboldt Bay, pictured above. I thought about how when in my current novel one of the protagonist's views such a sunset, she will describe it as shiny ribbons in bright yellow and orange-ish gold. Or I'll write it as such. Storytelling never gets far from me, perhaps it never will.